The Album

As we know from the second Harry Potter book, a diary can be a powerful thing. That’s why today we’re going to take a look at Neville’s Diary with their eleven track album, Things Will Get Better. This album was released way back on March 1st of 2008. Get ready to sneak a peek into the mind of Neville Longbottom – here we go!

The Tracks

Neville starts the album with his first diary entry. I Can’t Wait To Get There is about Neville’s journey – physically and metaphorically – to Hogwarts. Even though most of his family thought he was a squib, he proved them wrong when he received his Hogwarts letter. There are beautiful harmonies and a lovely guitar background to this track. I adored the guitar solo at the end.

Trevor The Toad is Neville’s best friend in this next song. It’s a cute upbeat ditty about Neville’s friendship with his toad. The instrumentals and mixing of the song really impressed me.

When Neville receives ten points for Gryffindor at the End Of Year Feast, putting his House above Slytherin for the winner of the House Cup, he finds himself dumbfounded. He sings about how standing up to his friends, though scary, was the right thing to do. There’s another great guitar solo in this one.

I Hate Cornish Pixies is exactly what you expect it to be about. I enjoyed the harmonies and the bouncy quality in this song. It’s fun and silly.

Neville sings about his crush on Professor Sprout in Oh Pomona. I adored this love song, especially because it shows a side of Neville we normally don’t see in the books, or indeed in a lot of the fan works about him. It also gives me more reasons to love Sprout as a person and as a character.

Lupin Vs. Snape has incredible harmonies in the background that come and go like waves upon the shore. It’s a darker song that takes place in year three for Neville. He makes it clear in this song that he admires and supports Lupin, and hopes that Snape will get put in his place.

When Neville finds himself At The Yuleball, he discovers that he actually really enjoyed himself, despite his initial doubts. The high energy and clear happiness from Neville in this one made me smile. This is such a sweet and uplifting song. My favorite part was the stacking harmonies leading up to the final chorus.

Neville finds himself trying to live up to The Family Name in the next track. He compares himself to his parents’ legacy. It’s a heartbreaking song that forces us to remember everything that Neville has gone through, from the loss of his parents to the feeling of doubt he experiences all the time about his magical abilities (or the lack thereof).

It is so heartwarming to listen to Neville sing about finding his place at Hogwarts in You Can’t Stop the D.A. You can really hear the passion and newfound strength in his voice as he tells us about the fright and determination in learning how to face the Dark Lord.

In If I Were Anyone, Neville reflects on what it would be like to be someone else. At the end of the day, he’s happy being himself. It’s a sweet song with a strong message.

When Hell Freezes Over is the last song on the album. Neville sings a powerful song to his friends and against Voldemort. He has been training for so long for this moment, and even though he is scared, he is also ready to do whatever it takes to take Voldemort and Nagini down. This is a wonderful song to end the album, with its solid harmonies and powerful statement.

In Summary

This was such an incredible album. Each track is clean, clear, and masterfully mixed. The harmonies are beautiful, and the guitar in each song is so impressive. I loved getting to hear all of these songs from Neville’s point of view. This album definitely gets a high recommendation from me.